A recent survey shows that 6 out of 10 Norwegians want to lower the heat to reduce it
its power consumption. – It can result in very large costs at a later date, warns the injury prevention company in the insurance company.
– It can be tempting to save a few kroner, but it can result in very large costs at a later date. It is important to have sufficient heat so that the pipes do not freeze, says injury prevention therapist Therese Nielsen in the insurance company Fremtind.
Recently, there have been record high electricity prices, and Europe is in a power crisis. This is partly due to high gas and coal prices, in addition to expensive CO2 quotas. Here in Norway, people in the south experienced the highest electricity prices ever on Tuesday last week.
6 out of 10 Norwegians want to turn down the heat to save money, shows a survey conducted by Respons analysis recently for Fremtind, the insurance company of SpareBank 1 and DNB. 1271 people aged 18-90 years participated in the survey.
Last winter, Fremtind registered a record number of water damage – over 1600 due to frost, to a total compensation amount of over 46 million kroner.
– If you do not have sufficient heat in wet rooms and rooms with pipes, you may have to take part of the bill even if you get a frost or water damage. And do not forget enough heat in the cabin, if you have it, it is perhaps even more exposed, Nielsen says.
– Potentially very dangerous
Nielsen is concerned that people follow the advice to use electricity when it is cheapest, which is often at night.
– This can potentially be very dangerous. Most of the fires we register start in electrical appliances and facilities, says Nielsen.
One contributing reason is that more and more people have private electric scooters and charge these at home, Nielsen states. The insurance company has registered several cases of batteries that have exploded during charging, as well as cases where the batteries have exploded even when they are not charging.
–In the last three years, Fremtind has registered close to 3,000 burns that have occurred in electrical items or facilities, which total NOK 62 million in compensation.
– We strongly encourage you not to use electrical appliances, and not to charge your phone or electric spare bicycle when you are not awake and present. It can have consequences far beyond a damaged battery, says Nielsen.
Do you find electricity prices confusing? Here’s a quick introduction.
–Advice to avoid frostbite
To avoid frostbite at home or in the cabin, Nielsen comes up with some advice:
The various rooms in the home must be adequately heated. You do not have to have a stay temperature of 20 degrees in all rooms, but there must be sufficient heat sources that are able to keep the rooms frost-free.
– A good rule of thumb is to calculate 60-70 watts per square meter, Nielsen says.
This means that if you have a room of 10 square meters, the stove should be at least 600 watts. If the room is very large, it is a good idea to have several stoves, so that the heat is well distributed in the room, she advises.
– In addition, all rooms where water leakage can occur should have water sensors on the floor. If it gets extra cold, it can be an advantage of up to 70-85 watts per square meter.
Major disagreement in the EU
One week ago, EU leaders met to discuss measures to resolve the energy crisis. Most member states have already taken their own measures to help those who have been hit hard by the price increase, among other things by cutting taxes and subsidies and subsidizing poor households.
On 13 October, the European Commission published a «toolbox»With measures that member states can introduce nationally, in addition to considering joint, long-term measures for all member states.
But there is great disagreement about what measures should be introduced: Spain, Italy and Greece are among the countries that want the EU to make changes to its regulations and have a common procurement scheme, according to the news agency.
Countries such as Germany and Belgium, on the other hand, are skeptical about changing the current regulations in response to a short-term crisis, writes Reuters. According to the European Commission, gas prices are expected to stabilize at a lower level by April next year.
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